Equipment Failure - your data please!

[Sam Miller III]

When the original bubble machine arrived in the US it was a piece of junk but the only piece of junk available. So we made do, even though it presented the diver with certain challenges

The regulators were the now the so called "Vintage" US Diver (Aqua Lung) double hose which provided a number of failure points :
1) the large cloth rubber impregnated cloth diaphragm always comes to mind-- and "swallowing the diaphragm" became into the vintage divers lexicon as a traumatic event

"Swallowing the diaphragm" happened to me twice;

First time while breathing very hard ripping up a reef for an elusive bug. As I grabbed the bug the diaphragm ruptured - I had swallowed the diaphragm and was swallowing copious amounts of water.
I got on my horse blowed and goed and flaired and I was there at the surface breathing pure (at that time) California fresh air.

The second time was considerably more traumatic - I was diving with three friends off my boat for lobsters. One member complained after his first dive that he regulator was breathing "wet." We all took a hit off of it and declared it breathed fine, no problems. I said "Lets change regulators I will dive yours and you dive mine"
It did breathe a "little wet" but acceptable for that era's regulators, and I continued on my search for the California bug. I was over body length back in a crevice working hard and breathing hard placing considerable strain on my air consumption. One breath I received a trickle of water with my inhalation
the next time a flood of salt water- the diaphragm had ruptured "swallowed the diaphragm."

I backed out to the crevice turned my youthful sun tanned body towards the surface and once again I blowed and goed and I faired and I was there -- California fresh air and the sun shining in my face.

Not soon enough the original French made Aqua Lung was modified and replaced by the American made US Divers DA Aqua lung and

And that wuzz way it wuzz in the days of our dives--so long ago
I would live to dive another day and tell the story of "Swallowing the diaphragm"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is recognized that recreational diving began and concentrated in SoCal primarily in three counties. San Diego with the great Bottom Scratchers in 1930s. Orange county with Herb Samson and his cameras and world record Spear guns and in LA County with Charlie Sturgil (LA CO UW Instr) who created so many items of diving it would be impossible to list and Bill Barada (LA CO UW Instr) who created the dry suit in 1948and was instrumental is establishing organized diving.

Recreational diving began a eastward in December 1951 with Skin Diver Magazine published in Compton California and the American retailers who offered mail order diving equipment and books for self instruction (oh the Horror !) Sears in 1956, Wards in 1957 and Pennys in 1964. this was followed by NAUI in 1960, the late great John Gaffney's NASDS and finally PADI incorporated

Some of you will question or discus "Swallowing the diaphragm" with your LDS or fuzzy faced instructor and will be met with a blank stair for the event called "swallowing the diaphragm." disappeared and most divers who have experienced "swallowing the diaphragm."

But Now you know...

Number of Dives ? Unknown - Have been a SSI Pro 5000 since beginning
Failures ?
2 with vintage equipment
Nothing of note with modern equipment

Sam Miler, III​

@caruso FYI - recheck PM

@Scuba Lawyer
@Akimbo
@Marie13 a little dive history

​

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

52 years diving and a zillion or so dives. If one defines equipment failure as dive gear not working as intended, and excluding blown o-rings, blown hoses, and pressure guage failures and regulator free-flows on the surface at power-up, I've had:

1 uncontrollable second stage free-flow at depth (still trying to determine why lever stuck in down position and did not pop back up).

1 no-clue what happened but a bunch of air escaping from tank valve/1st stage area at depth (probably blown oring but it was rental gear 30 years ago in the Caribbean),

Approximately 5 LP inflator leaks to the point where I had to disconnect the damn thing because my BC kept filling up.

I did have a wet breathing leaky air supply hose on a double hose reg but that was because the tank dropped out of its rack on the boat just before the dive and, unbeknownst to me, got a hole in the hose.

M

 

[Edward3c]

1 SPG unscrewed from hose.
1700 +
47 days underwater

 

[rongoodman]

400-500 dives, I guess. As far as I recall, one leaking BC inflator(continuously inflating) and one leaking spool on an SPG.

 

[Couv]

....one leaking BC inflator(continuously inflating) and one leaking spool on an SPG.

Those are the two most common discrepancies I've seen. The small o-rings involved, combined with the difficult to rinse/soak assemblies they're in, make them prime candidates for the troublemaker merit badge.

 

[Frosty]

Dunno over 1000 dives now.
1 computer total failure cause by human error refitting the battery.
2) No air flow through regs caused by blocked filter. This was traced to ally slurry or ally dust in a rental tank.-No question this was a poorly maintained tank issue.-The company was prosecuted not long after for other saftey related issues.

 

[Rred]

Life threatening failure??

Aren't we all taught that there should be at least three ways to avoid a problem form any one equipment failure? Aren't we all supposed to have redundant gear, if there aren't multiple options to reach the surface?

AFAIK the DAN studies have concluded that fully half the diver deaths every year are from divers found with empty tanks. And the only equipment failure was "operator error", that is, someone forgot to check their air, ran out, and hadn't planned for that event.

 

[Bob DBF]

AFAIK the DAN studies have concluded that fully half the diver deaths every year are from divers found with empty tanks. And the only equipment failure was "operator error", that is, someone forgot to check their air, ran out, and hadn't planned for that event

So they can tell, after the fact, the difference between a diver breathing the tank dry and a free flow after a diver has passed on? Sounds like a variation of diver deaths every year are from divers found with their weight belts on.

Considering the volume of tragedies on the A&I forum, and the few, if any, actual determination of cause are ever found, I wonder how DAN can know it was the divers fault that they died from running out of air in half of the diver deaths.



Bob

 

[happy-diver]

couple of months ago fully prepared with plenty redundancy got swept away knocked around
out of breath with gear fully operable and almost drowned myself with 4200 litres on my back

shore dive over rocks at a river mouth after rain at a bar in current at night with zero visibility

with two other older bastards, good plan huh!

 

[rjack321]

ruptured hoses = 4 or 5
blown orings = 25ish?
failed 1st stage HP seats = 3
stuck spg = empty tank = 1

In about 1300 dives. Roughly 2200hrs​